1873 in South Africa
# 1873 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1873 in South Africa.

## Incumbents

* Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa: Sir Henry Barkly.
* Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Natal:
   * Sir Anthony Musgrave (until 29 April).
   * Thomas Milles (acting from 30 April to 21 July).
   * Sir Benjamin Pine (from 22 July).
* State President of the Orange Free State: Jan Brand.
* State President of the South African Republic: Thomas François Burgers.
* Lieutenant-Governor of Griqualand West: Sir Richard Southey (from 17 July).
* Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: Sir John Molteno.

## Events

### April

* 30 – Thomas Milles becomes acting Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Natal.

### May

* 1 – The use of Dutch is officially allowed in the Cape of Good Hope's parliament.
* 14 – The Ohrigstad area is proclaimed a public gold field after gold is discovered in the Selati River.

### July

* 5 – New Rush in Griqualand West is renamed Kimberley after John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley.
* 17 – Sir Richard Southey becomes the first Lieutenant-Governor of Griqualand West.
* 22 – Sir Benjamin Pine becomes Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Natal.

### August

* 20 – Prime Minister John Molteno authorises construction of the new Cape Eastern railway line from East London.

### December

* 4 – HMS Challenger, on its worldwide marine research expedition, is officially welcomed in Cape Town.
* 26 – HMS Challenger arrives at Prince Edward Islands and contacts survey and charts the islands

### Unknown date

* The University of South Africa is founded in Cape Town as the University of the Cape of Good Hope.
* The Cape Government establishes the first district boarding schools to educate children from rural areas while education is standardised at the Cape.
* The town of East London is officially established through the proclaimed merger of the three settlements of Panmure, East London and East London East.
* Warmbad is established as Hartingsburg at the hot springs north of Pretoria.

## Births

* 13 August – C.J. Langenhoven, playwright, poet, journalist, politician and author of Die Stem van Suid-Afrika. (d. 1932)
* 20 August – William Henry Bell, musician, composer and first director of the South African College of Music. (d. 1946)

## Deaths

* 1 May – David Livingstone is found dead on his knees beside his bed at Lake Bangweolo. (b. 1813)

## Railways

### Railway lines opened

* Namaqualand – Muishondfontein to Kookfontein, 15 miles (24.1 kilometres).

### Locomotives

* Two Cape gauge 0-4-0 saddle tank locomotives enter service at Port Elizabeth on the Midland System of the Cape Government Railways. They are the first Cape gauge locomotives to enter service in South $Africa.^{:117–118}^{:6}$
* East London's first steam locomotive is landed at East London Harbour, a 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) Brunel gauge 0-4-0 vertical boiler engine acquired for work on breakwater construction.
